The Internet or World Wide Web (web) contains a vast amount of information, and is a dangerous place for users who are not familiar with the security issues presented by the Internet. Several online activities require submission of sensitive information, such as social security numbers, bank passwords, credit card numbers, personal information, etc., in web forms to online providers (e.g., websites). Most online providers enable safe and secure transmissions of such sensitive information. However, certain online providers utilize the sensitive information for improper purposes, such as credit card theft, identity theft and fraud purposes, etc. Thus, these unscrupulous online providers do not provide for safe and secure transmissions of sensitive information.
It is difficult to protect users against the threat of improper use of sensitive information for a variety of reasons. One reason that it is difficult to protect users is that many users lack the awareness to be able to distinguish between trustworthy online providers and untrustworthy online providers. For example, inexperienced Internet users find it difficult to identify whether a website's connection is secure or is not secure. Even experienced Internet users forget to check for website security indicators, such as secure socket layer (SSL) indicators, or do not know that such security indicators exist. Furthermore, these website security indicators provide a variety of confusing security information that even the savviest Internet users may not fully understand.